FAA Gives Texas Company License for Reusable Rocket Launches

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Federal Aviation Administration issued
a license today (July 26) to the private spaceflight company
Armadillo Aerospace, a move that allows the firm to launch a new
reusable rocket on short space missions.

The reusable launch vehicle license was awarded to the Heath,
Texas-based company
Armadillo Aerospace, a firm founded by Doom computer game
developer John Carmack, to launch commercial flights of an
unmanned rocket called STIG B into suborbital space from a New
Mexico spaceport. The first flight under the license is slated to
launch in late August, company officials said.

"We are hoping to launch 24 flights within a two-year period,"
said Neil Milburn, vice president of program management for
Armadillo Aerospace, after receiving the FAA license at the
NewSpace 2012 conference here today. The company has always
maintained a goal of launching a rocket at least once a month, he
added.

With the license in hand, Armadillo Aerospace plans to launch
commercial payloads into suborbital space on the STIG B rocket
and return them to Earth. The company also hopes to serve NASA's
suborbital rocket launch needs for the space agency's Flight
Opportunities Program. The first mission, dubbed STIG B-1, could
launch by Aug. 25 or 26. It will carry microgravity experiments
for Purdue University and company Vega Space, Milburn said.

Armadillo Aerospace's STIG-B rocket stands 35 feet tall (10.6
meters), is about 20 inches wide (51 centimeters) and uses liquid
oxygen and ethanol for fuel. It is designed to launch 110-pound
(50 kg) experiment payloads to an altitude of 62 miles (100
kilometers), experience three minutes of weightlessness, and then
deploy a supersonic balloon parachute — called a ballute – to
protect it as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere.

The rocket launches from a vertical pad at
Spaceport America in New Mexico and is expected to use a
GPS-guided steerable main parachute to slow its descent after
re-entry.

"The entire system is reusable," Milburn said. "We hope to be
able to go launch again, if not in the same day, then within 24
hours. The goal is to reach a point where all we have to do is
gas up and go."

The first STIG B mission, however, will likely not lead to a
quick turnaround, Milburn said. He expects company engineers will
want to examine the rocket in detail to see how its components
withstood the rigors of spaceflight.

The upcoming STIG B rocket launch will come about seven months
after Armadillo Aerospace's last launch of its previous rocket,
the STIG A booster, in late January. That Jan. 28 test flight hit
a snag when its ballute failed to work as expected and the
spacecraft fell back to Earth.

Milburn said Armadillo Aerospace has learned from that experience
and will be able to continue to refine the STIG B rocket during
its many anticipated flights. The lessons learned from the STIG B
flights, he added, will help the company with its future vehicles
as well.

In addition to its unmanned commercial rocket launches, Armadillo
Aerospace is developing a
two-person space capsule to carry paying passengers into
suborbital space. That vehicle will launch and land vertically,
and is primarily expected to be used to for space tourist
flights.

But the passenger spaceship will come later. First, STIG B has to
fly successfully.

Milburn said that rocket testing — and not the FAA licensing
process — has taken the most time. The STIG B rocket is currently
in pieces awaiting final assembly, with its integration tests
planned for its two experiment payloads.

"We've still got a lot of work to do before we can launch,"
Milburn said.